Sunday, August 19, 2012

Rustic Refuge Cove, just across the way from Squirrel Cove. Open only during summer, it's a great placefor a pit stop and minor provisioning.

A week’s worth of travel and
at last we reached our destination.
Why a place so stunningly picturesque is dubbed “Desolation Sound” is a
mystery. Hmmm… maybe a future topic
post? Unless someone else wants to chime in!

A popular area for boats to "raft" (tie together) , in this case likely to party together

Widely lauded by guidebooks
and other “yachties” (boaters), Squirrel Cove was on our “must do” list. We were less enchanted. Don’t get us wrong -- Squirrel Cove is
a pleasant enough spot, wide enough to accommodate a crowd with ease.

We got an inauspicious
start, our wrapping dinghy painter (the rope which is used to tie off the boat
we use to get ashore) around our propeller. In case there’s any doubt, that’s a really, really bad thing
to do. A few months earlier I crewed a boat through “the graveyard to the
Pacific” which was taken out from it’s prior run from a wrapped propeller,
which required a local shipyard fix.
Fortunately, Wayne realized instantly what happened and shut our motor
off -- pronto -- stopping further rope wrap. Thanks to his quick thinking, I was able to untangle it
without having to dive, use a knife or get rescued.

On the upside, I got to
indulge my desire for local fare when we noticed a fishing boat doing the
rounds amongst the boats. They
ignored my persistent arm waving until they visited the bigger boats with
larger crews, and eventually decided to come by.

We bought their
locally caught shrimp and treated them to our hot tub, with much lip smacking
afterward.

Wayne pulling seaweed offour anchor -- streaming ~5' long and HEAVY!

The next morn, our planned
hike went awry as we were unable to find the trailhead based on our guidebook’s
no longer existing landmark, “Marilyn’s Salmon” Café. After two tries, each at different anchors, where we rowed
ashore, we gave up.

We still had to anchor one
more time then dock for some minor re-provisioning, as the receding tide would
have grounded our boat, according to the folks at the General Store.

Recently built Indiancommunity center

We ambled about, determined
to get in some kind of walk before taking off. Our turnaround was the new local Native American community center. On the way back, we chatted for a while with another
cruising couple who tried to entice us the night before to head over to the
local creek swimming hole. Turns
out the water there rose quickly with a wicked current, trapping the swimmers
there until 10 pm!